Jilnovian
Jilnovian is the official language of the Republic of Jilnovia. Grammar 'Article' Indefinite The indefinite article is the singular is en but is commonly left out. There is no indefinite article for the plural. Eg. (en) člvik a man'' '' Definite The definite article, added to the noun as a suffix, follows number, '-ot' for the singular, '-te' for the plural. Eg. (en) člvik (a) man člvikot the man člviči men člvičite the men 'Nouns' Nouns have only one gender. Plural is formed by adding '-i' or '-a' to the singular. Nouns ending in the singular in g, d, k, s or t''' normally get this letter tranformed into '''ž, z, č, š and c', respectively, before the plural ending '-i. Eg. drug - druži friend god - gozi year djavik - djaviči girl jas - jaši forest djat - djaci child Nouns that in the singular already end in ž, z, č, š or c''' get the plural ending '''-а. Eg. muž - muža man roz - roza rose doč - doča daughter lic - lca* street However, nouns ending in a cluster of consonants do not usually get their last consonant transformed, but still get the plural ending -i. Eg. mjast - mjasti place The same phenomenon arises in the common way of deriving adjectivs from nouns. Eg. zlt gold - zlcni golden but 'smrt' death - smrtni deathly * Many nouns (and certain other words) have fleeting vowels that are dropped in certain positions, most frequently when plurals are formed of nouns that contains a vocalised consonant (l or r). Eg. ''lic street - lca streets '' ''strom tree - strmi trees '' ''vram time - vrmi times '' ''klkol bell - klkli bells '' This phenomenon is thought to originate from the tendency earlier in the history of the language to emphasise the plural ending of a noun. 'Adjectives' All adjectives in their singular form end in -i., and in their plural form in -e. Eg. bjali dom white house bjale domi white houses When applying the definite article to a noun phrase containing one or more adjective, the article is placed separately after the first adjective, following the number of the noun, to for singular, te for plural. Eg. (en) bjali dom - (a) white house bjali to dom - the white house bjale domi - white houses bjale te domi - the white houses (en) novi bjali dom - (a) new white house novi to bjali dom - the new white house nove bjale domi - new white houses nove te bjale domi - the new white houses 'Adverbs' Adverbs derived from adjectives just changed the '-i' ending to '-o'. Eg. srcni hearty srcno heartily 'Comparison' Usually an adjective is compared by replacing the '-i' with '-ši' to form the comparative, and by further adding the prefix naj-''' to the comparative to form the superlative. Eg. '''novi new novši newer najnovši newest If the adjective already ends in '-ši', a common way to form the comparative is to insert '-je-' before: groši good grješi* better najgrješi* best blši big blješi bigger najblješi biggest *See above under Nouns on fleeting vowels. 'Numerals' '1 din - prvi ' '2 dva - dvori ' '3 tri - trti ' '4 štir - štrti ' '5 pjat - pjati ' '6 šes - šesti ' '7 sem - sedmi ' '8 osm - osmi ' '9 djavit - djavti ' '10 djast - djasti ' '11 dinacet - dinaceti ' '12 dvanacet - dvanaceti ' '13 trnacet - trinaceti ' '14 štrnacet - štirnaceti ' '15 pjatnacet - pjatnaceti ' '16 šesnacet - šesnaceti ' '17 smnacet - semnaceti ' '18 osmnacet - osmnaceti ' '19 djavitnacet - djavitnaceti ' '20 dvacet - dvaceti ' Jilnovian is in essence a Slavonic language. The vocabulary leans towards Russian, the orthography is influenced by Czech and Croatian (using l,r, and m as semivowels), and the grammar (featuring the loss of cases and the addition of a definite article) is Macedonian/Bulgarian taken one step further (also eliminating gender).